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Democracy is the most widely used way of organizing politics in the contemporary world. Comparative Democratic Politics brings together a team of renowned international scholars to provide a comprehensive review of theory and research in this essential area of comparative study. Four major themes covered are:· the contribution of comparative politics as a distinct field within political science to our understanding of democracy, democratic politics and democratic theory· what we can learn from a comparative analysis of the role, functioning and behaviour of the principal actors (electorate, parties and institutions) across nations · the relationship between politics and public policy formation and processes of democratic decision-making and corresponding policy-making capacity· how we measure contemporary democracy or democratic performance in both a procedural and material sense.Comparative Democratic Politics will be essential reading for all students and academics of political science and public policy.
List of contents
PART ONE: THE COMPARATIVE APPROACH TO DEMOCRACY
The Comparative Approach to Democracy - Hans Keman
The Development of the Study of Comparative Politics - Hans Daalder
Comparing Democracies - Hans Keman
Theories and Evidence
PART TWO: PARTIES AND GOVERNMENT IN DEMOCRACIES
Comparative Government and Democracy - Ian Budge et al
Voters, Elections and Ideology in European Democracies - Paul Pennings
In the Aggregate - Peter Mair
Mass Electoral Behaviour in Western Europe, 1950-2000
PART THREE: DEMOCRATIC INSTITUTIONS AND POLITICAL ACTION
Interest Intermediation - Klaus Armingeon
The Cases of Consociational Democracy and Corporatism
The Impact of Political Parties, Constitutional Structures and Veto Players on Public Policy - Manfred G Schmidt
Comparative Politics and the Welfare State - Kees van Kersbergen and Uwe Becker
PART FOUR: THE POLITICAL PERFORMANCE OF DEMOCRACIES
Policy Performance in the Democratic State - Francis G Castles
An Emergent Field of Study
Democratic Performance - Jan-Erik Lane and Svante Ersson
Are There Institutional Effects?
Democratic Institutions, Governance and Political Performance - Hans Keman with Malika A[um]it Mallouk
About the author
Hans Keman is Professor and Chair of Political Science at the Vrije Universiteit in Amsterdam
CONTRIBUTORS′ AFFILIATIONS:
Klaus Armingeon Institut fuer Politiekwissenschapft, Unitobler
Uwe Becker Universiteit van Amsterdam
Ian Budge University of Essex
Francis Castles The Australian National University, Canberra
Hans Daalder The Hague
Svante Errson Umea Universitet
Kees van Kersbergen Katholieke Universiteit Nijmegen
Jan-Erik Lane Universite de Geneve
Peter Mair Universiteit van Leiden
Paul Pennings Vrije Universiteit
Manfred Schmidt
Summary
This essential new book brings together world class scholars to provide a completely new comparative politics text. It offers a comprehensive reivew of the complete democratic process and provides a framework for measuring and evaluating contemporary democracy and democratic performance around the world.
